SA’s ICU Crisis: Only 1 in 4 critical care nurses properly trained
South Africa’s intensive care system is severely constrained not just by bed shortages, but by a critical lack of trained staff.
Picture: wavebreakmediamicro/123rf.com
Africa Melane speaks to DENOSA’s Kwena Manamela.
Listen below:
South Africa’s critical care system is on life support.
That was the message delivered by a leading critical care professor recently.
The University of Pretoria's Professor Fathima Paruk issued a stark warning during her inaugural address that the country’s ICU crisis runs far deeper than infrastructure.
"You can’t run an ICU bed without nurses and doctors who are trained in critical care," she said. "And we are extremely short on them in both the public and private sectors."
According to figures, across the country, only 25% of our ICU nurses are trained in critical care.
DENOSA's Kwena Manamela says the crisis became clear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"That is where we saw that there is a real serious shortage of skills."
- Kwena Manamela, General Secretary - DENOSA
By their nature, these are critical, life-saving, skills, says Manamela.
"They are the ones that are critical to life...where that person really needs support," he says.
So why is there such a low number of nursing professionals able to provide this type of care?
Manamela says part of the reason is that nursing training is no longer hospital-based.
"There has been a curriculum change, in the past 5 or 6 years...wherein it has been shifted to the universities."
- Kwena Manamela, General Secretary - DENOSA
"The intake in the universities is not the same as the intakes that were there before. That means very few go through these programmes of post-basic, which includes the ICUs, the critical care and so on."
- Kwena Manamela, General Secretary - DENOSA
To listen to the full interview on SA's ICU crisis, scroll up to the audio player above.